For all the flooded outfields and soggy scorecards of the past few months, the LV County Championship is actually building towards one of its most exciting finishes in recent years. English cricket’s premier domestic competition reaches its conclusion a month tomorrow and the race for the title looks likely to go the distance.

At least five of the nine first division teams still have realistic hopes of winning the championship. Yorkshire, the fifth favourites with most bookmakers, are still priced at only 10-1.

A quick glance at the championship table shows Lancashire in sixth position, just above the relegation zone. Yet the teams above them are so tightly packed that, with a match in hand, the Red Rose county are still only 22 points – the value of a win with full bonus points – behind Sussex, the leaders. This morning, Sussex begin a four-day match at the Brit Oval against Surrey, who are more concerned with relegation, while Lancashire are at home to Hampshire, fellow contenders who sit four points above them and also have a match in hand on Sussex.

This match brings together – possibly for the last time on the same field – the two most prolific bowlers in Test match history. Shane Warne will be rousing his Hampshire team from the doldrums after their defeat by Durham at Lord’s, while Muttiah Muralitharan plays his last game of the season for Lancashire. He is leaving to play for Sri Lanka in the ICC World Twenty20, a competition that Lancashire had hoped he would be excused from. His absence could have a major bearing on the championship run-in.

No bowler in recent times, not even Warne or Mushtaq Ahmed, has come so close to being a guaranteed match-winner in county cricket as Muralitharan. In his 26 matches for Lancashire to date, the Sri Lankan has taken 197 wickets at an average of 15.31, a rate of 7.58 wickets per game.

Mushtaq has taken 438 wickets in 76 matches for Sussex at 24.86, which equates to 5.76 wickets per match, while Warne, in 62 matches for Hampshire, has 265 wickets at 25.39, a rate of 4.27 per match.

Perhaps the most remarkable statistic of Muralitharan’s time at Old Trafford is his record of 22 five-wicket hauls in his 26 matches. When Mike Watkinson, the Lancashire cricket manager, was asked what a batsman would have to do to emulate this sort of influence, he suggested that a century every three innings would be required. Only Don Bradman has scored hundreds at that rate.

The excitement at seeing Warne and Muralitharan in wrist-to-wrist combat may be dampened this morning as the Old Trafford outfield is still damp after heavy rain at the weekend. Even yesterday, Lancashire were warning their supporters that a prompt 11am start was unlikely.

Watkinson met early last week with Peter Marron, the groundsman, and Jim Cumbes, the chief executive, to consider moving the Hampshire match to Liverpool, but they opted against it. “It will be a battle to start on time,” Cumbes said. “The outfield was fine last week, but the weekend rain is just not draining as quickly because of the dreadful summer we’ve had.”

Inzamam-ul-Haq will make his debut for Yorkshire against Warwickshire tomorrow and he may be joined by another replacement overseas player, Imran Tahir, who has been signed as temporary cover for Jason Gillespie. Imran, the Pakistan A leg spinner, played three matches for Middlesex in 2003.

Sir Bill Morris, former general secretary of the Transport and General Workers’ Union, has announced his intention to stand for the chairmanship of the ECB.

After the split ballot between Mike Soper and Giles Clarke, Morris indicated that he would join the fray. “As a first part of the process, I have written to all the county chairmen to say that I would like to stand and become chairman of the ECB,” Morris, a non-executive member of the ECB management board, said.

Yorkshire Phoenix rose to the top of the NatWest Pro40 League second division with a one-sided victory over Glamorgan Dragons, the bottom club, under the Sophia Gardens floodlights last night (Richard Thomas writes).

After winning an important toss, Yorkshire restricted the home side to 129 for eight in a match restricted to 35 overs because of rain. On a seaming pitch, Darren Gough and Richard Pyrah each took three wickets and Jason Gillespie produced figures of 7-3-8-1 as only three Dragons batsmen reached double figures.

In reply, Gerard Brophy clubbed 66 from 36 balls with 12 fours and a six as the Phoenix breezed to an eight-wicket victory with 17.2 overs to spare. Jacques Rudolph completed the job with an accomplished 49 not out.